Synopsis

Assigned to protect a royal procession transporting a powerful artifact called the "Ouin," Squad 10 gathers in the human world as Captain Toushirou Hitsugaya and Lieutenant Rangiku Matsumoto observe the area cautiously. However, the caravan is suddenly struck by a group of assailants who wreak havoc on the procession, stealing the Ouin in the process. After a brief clash with one of the attackers, the distraught Hitsugaya pursues the escaping thieves, leaving behind Matsumoto and the disoriented squad. Following the incident, the Seireitei brands Hitsugaya a traitor for abandoning his post and puts Squad 10 on indefinite lockdown.

In the human world, Ichigo Kurosaki is investigating a spiritual abnormality when he stumbles across the injured Captain, but is caught off guard when Hitsugaya suddenly flees. Soon learning of the situation, Ichigo, Rukia Kuchiki, Renji Abarai, and Matsumoto set off to prove Hitsugaya's innocence and uncover the truth behind the theft of the Ouin. Meanwhile, a ghost from Hitsugaya's past haunts his thoughts as he chases down the true culprit.

Bleach: The DiamondDust Rebellion takes place in the Bleach universe, as the title may suggest. It focuses mainly on 10th squad captain Hitsugaya Toshiro, so if you're a fan of him, you'll enjoy this movie, and if you're not, you might not find it interesting. If you're neither of the former, like me, you'll probably enjoy it too.

The story isn't the most original story you'll see, as it follows the theme of revenge based off of a grudge from the past. Said revenge will be executed by obliterating everything. So there's nothing special in that department. Toshiro gets involved in this act of revenge
because he has a connection to the man who holds the grudge against Seireitei. One day, the King's Seal, a mysterious and powerful artifact, gets stolen from right under the noses of the squad protecting it (the 10th squad), and Toshiro ends up missing. Now, events that may change Seireitei begin to unfold. And that's where the movie starts off.

It gradually explores Toshiro's past with the man who wants to take revenge on Seireitei with sporadic flashbacks, that doesn't make a lot of sense at first, but they become more and more clear as the events in the movie unfold, and you soon get to learn the reason behind this man's grudge against Soul Society. While this way of telling the story is not something unseen, it works very well with this movie, and does give it some extra tension and entertainment value.

Long-time Bleach fans will probably enjoy this movie because we get to see many characters we've not seen fight for a long time fight. Among others, there's Zaraki at his craziest, Yoruichi and Soi Fon with their Shunko, and Ikkaku with his bankai. Of course, there's a lot of icy fighting courtesy of Toushiro.

Another thing I believe long-time Bleach fans will find enjoyable is the animation quality, which is at the very least astounding. With awesome lighting effects, very fluid character movements and high attention to detail, it surpasses the normal quality of Bleach's animation by many levels. If I could, I'd set the score to 15/10.

The soundtrack is awesome as well, with astounding tunes that fit right into the mood of the movie, amplifying the scenes and events as well as a soundtrack should. DDR's soundtrack is one of the few that gets the honor of being downloaded to my computer.

All in all, if you're a Bleach fan, don't hate Toshiro, and if you don't mind a classic revenge-based story, chances are you'll enjoy this movie.

Bleach - The DiamondDust Rebellion is the 2nd movie of the Bleach series. As a fan of Bleach, I dare not write this review until after I've re-watched the movie twice to be sure I did not miss anything crucial. If you just want some recommendation from someone who have watched this movie, I would watch it if you've read/watched Bleach before, otherwise you should skip it.

Story:
The main spot light of the story revolves around Hitsugaya's past when he was still a student in the spiritual academy and how he (and his friend) obtained their zanpakuto. The movie is full of holes to me for
a number of reasons. Please excuse my use of language in the following spoiler.

1. How the hell can Hitsugaya bleed from the start to the end? His wound was never treated, in fact it got worsen after the encounter with Kira and Hisagi. Speaking of Kira and Hisagi, what happen to them after they got beaten the crap out of?

2. How the hell can a noob (I am referring to Kusaka) take out the 8th squad caption, Shunsui Kyoraku, when he does not even have bankai? I understand it was a "surprise" to Shunsui when he took off Kusaka's mask. Don't say because Kusaka was in possession of the King's Seal, because if the Seal is that powerful, Kusaka would not be defeated in the end.

3. Who the hell are those two arrancars following Kusaka? The story never mentions how they meet up with Kusaka and why the two decide to follow him on his quest for "revenge". Were they attracted to his personality, his "dream", or his "beauty"? Nothing was mentioned at all!

4. Why the hell can't there be two users using the same zanpakuto? The rule, as the excuse used by the central 46, was a very lame one to get the friends to start fighting. If it weren't for the central 46, this whole incident would never have happened. Come to think of it, I should be glad that Aizen took care of those good for nothings.

The list can go on and even extend to some of the ridiculous battles but we'll leave it at that.

Art:
As to be expected from a movie, the quality of the animation is much better than its TV counterpart. Nice camera angles and detailed battle scenes definitely one of the movie's strong point.

Sound:
The production crew decided to reuse quite a few battle themes from the TV series that we are all familiar with. In fact, there was only one or two new themes beside the ending song. The music has a nice melody and suits the varies scenes that they are accompanied with. The only downfall for me was the ending which I had a very hard time accepting.

Character:
It was nice to see some of Hitsugaya's past and we definitely see his character develop as the story unfolds. Most characters in the TV series made an appearance, which was quite hard to do considering the number of casts. It was good to see some action from Soi Fon and Yoruichi, Byakuya, and Kenpachi.

What was lacking was some background information on the two arrancars following Kusaka and how did Kusaka just manage to get reincarnated in Hueco Mundo .

Enjoyment + Overall:
The story, those a bit slow at times, was very attention-grabbing. It was easy to follow, and made me think a lot at the same time.

I would recommend this to any Bleach fan out there, especially those who like Hitsugaya. However, if you've never seen Bleach before then this movie will be a pile of confusing BS since characters come and go very quickly.

Story: I don't want to give any spoilers, but basically if you've seen the trailer, you've seen the majority of the plot. It's not that the plot was bad at all; there were just a few random plot devices that were a bit strange, especially in the beginning with Ichigo's initial involvement in the story. If one compares it to the first Bleach movie (which of course is inevitable), this movie's plot was much better. There were a good amount of flashbacks which were done nicely as well.

Art: You can really see the difference here between the TV series and the movie. There were some
excellent camera angles, scene changes, and special effects. At times, the camera took Ichigo's viewpoint; other times it took a grand, panoramic view of the scene. Of course, other movies have done that, but with such camera work/framing it gave the movie a more serious, artsy feel to it. It's good if you're like me and enjoy that stuff.

Sound: It has all the major themes of the series, plus a choral piece that gave me shivers, and several distinctly Japanese pieces that set the tone of the film exactly right. The seamless blending of sound and sight was perhaps the best part of the movie for me.

Character: Well, of course all of the Bleach characters are in character...with almost every soul society member and human (and quincy) making at least a cameo appearance. The villain was suitably well developed and somewhat sympathetic since he is featured in most of the flashbacks. Hitsugaya fans will enjoy getting a glimpse under his "icey" exterior during the flashbacks as well. I wasn't so fond of how emo he was, but it was at least tolerable and not too overdone.

Enjoyment: The reason why I didn't give a 10 for enjoyment (and why the overall score is a 9) is because there's not very many good battles in the movie. Let's face it, one reason Bleach is so great is because of the epic fights. I went to the movie specifically in the theater to see that epic quality on the big screen, and was a bit disappointed. There were a few somewhat boring "henchmen" fights, and the final battle was kind of anti-climactic. However, I did like the fact that the climax took place in Soul Society, where the captains could show off their full powers (though again, you don't get to see anything new or really exciting stuff happen).

In all, however, I very much recommend seeing this movie, whether you be a die hard fan or new to Bleach, or even if you don't like the series very much. This movie takes most of the good points from the series and puts it into one and a half hours of good entertainment.

I'm going to have to disagree with the various positive reviews posted here.

First off, as a quick and painless summary, I must say that this movie does not in any way measure up to the quality of the first. By the end, I can honestly say I was bored. View a breakdown of the various subsections below.

The plot was not overly interesting. I, being a rather strict advocate of manga canon, was not overly enthused by &quot;One zanpakutou, two owners&quot; idea. In the movie's defense, however, I appreciated their portrayal of the Central 46 as strict and unwavering in their ideology. There were plot
holes, as well as various cliched themes which recur commonly in anime, which would not have required that much effort or good writing to fix.
Ichigo going to Soul Society to fix all their problems for them is a theme which has been much overdone by this point, and frankly, is no longer interesting.

The animation was very underdone. At several points during it I found myself saying aloud, &quot;Is this not a movie?&quot; Let alone other animes, Bleach itself has had better animation during certain episodes. A large portion of the movie had standard &quot;Bleach filler&quot; animation quality. Even the more high budget scenes could have been better.

Why does Yoruichi pop into Soul Society whenever she feels like it?
Character stereotypes were whored to the point of being annoying. Yamamoto was a thick-headed idiot until the truth had clearly come to light. Soi Fon was still a Yoruichi fan girl who seemed to enjoy ripping off her robes every time something provoked her slightly. Hitsugaya was cold and unfriendly. Ichigo yelling at people solved all their problems once again. Ikkaku would NOT use bankai in that situation. And of course, the enemy is ridiculously powerful by some unknown means or by very little effort.

I did not particularly enjoy this movie. Compared to Memories of Nobody, I would consider it a near write-off. Memories of Nobody had a solid story, a worthy enemy, and emotional connection, all of which were simply absent in DiamondDust Rebellion.